YellowPagesGoesGreen.org Decrees: The End of 2012 Marks the End of the Print Phone Book Era

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that 840,000 tons of telephone directories went into the municipal waste stream in 2008.

In an unstable national economy where businesses open and close ever day, consumers clearly need a more flexible and dynamic solution to their directory needs

Northport, NY (PRWEB)November 11, 2012

YellowPagesGoesGreen.org, a massive business directory website at the forefront of the environmentally-conscious “Green“ movement, is preparing to enter 2013 by ramping up efforts to convince the American public of the ease and effectiveness of web-based business directory solutions and the hazards posed to the environment outdated print phone book publishers desperately clinging to an outdated business model in an age of readily-available digital information distribution.

An innovator in digital business and telephone directory listings and an advocate for staunch environmentalism, YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is a cutting-edge website that delivers over 28.5 million up-to-the-minute listings of businesses throughout the United States and Canada. Whereas print directories are often out-of-date within weeks of their publication and use up valuable natural resources in both their creation and disposal, YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is a fast, convenient, and easy way to access the information you need to find the goods and services that you want.

YellowPagesGoesGreen.org’s listings are updated constantly every day, always ensuring users with the most accurate information and listings are any and all times; meanwhile, print directory users have to wait another 365 days before they get any form of an update dropped onto their doorstep, which in turn will be useless for yet another year, and so on. "In an unstable national economy where businesses open and close ever day, consumers clearly need a more flexible and dynamic solution to their directory needs - YellowPagesGoesGreen.org provides that solution" said Michael Keegan, Chief Executive Officer.

In addition, YellowPagesGoesGreen.org users not only have the ability to search listings, but to add and maintain their own as well. And with fully-functioning, downloadable Apps also available for both Apple and Android-powered digital devices, including smartphones, tablet computers, iPads, and more, consumers can have the power of the YellowPagesGoesGreen.org in the palm of their hand wherever they go.

An article published on White Pages Blog entitled "Five Reasons You Don't Need Phone Books" cites statistics such as the fact that 615 million volumes of phonebooks equates to 100 million tons; obviously, a fair percentage of that staggering sum will end up in landfills, as according to Earth911.com, only 37 percent of phone books were recycled in 2009. The White Pages Blog article also mentions the growing membership and effectiveness of online phone directories and the growing ease of opting out of receiving phone books to begin with as other convincing arguments for doing away with the archaic concept of print directories in favor of digital solutions to business listings.

But what is the actual impact of all those unwanted phone books? Treehugger.com reports that, annually, an estimated 650,000 tons of phone books are distributed to America's 100+ million households. At an EPA estimated national recycling rate of 18%, only 117,000 tons of phone books are recycled each year, many of them on the day that they are received. Treehugger also says that, according to Product Stewardship Institute estimates, it costs between $50 and $75 per ton to recycle phone books and between $75 and $100 to dispose of them in a landfill; annually, we spend between $45 and $62 million to get rid of unwanted or old phone books, or $0.45-0.60 per household.

But the impact of phone books goes beyond mere financial concerns, and right into the very fragile fabric of the environment itself. Treehugger also reports that greenhouse gas emissions from producing the aforementioned 650,000 tons of paper produces 1,474,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalents; by comparison, the greenhouse gas emissions of the entire Walt Disney Corporation in 2006 were 1,649,717 tons of CO2-equivalents. The production of 650,000 tons of paper also requires the use of 44.2 billion liters of water, in addition the loss of forest, the eutrofication of rivers, and more.

An article published by Forbes by writer Tom Barlow entitled "Yellow Pages: No More Waste on the Stoop," touts the internet as the clear and present successor of print yellow pages; in comparison, he says, it renders phone books "as obsolete as a slide rule." Barlow goes on to discuss wastefulness of phone book delivery and the need for effective opt-out programs; he cites an new and effective program in Seattle, Washington as being responsible for the cancellation of close to a quarter of a million books since its inception.

In light of these uncontestable facts, it’s clear that the internet is the way to go when not only embracing a green lifestyle but also effectively servicing your business needs. And leading that way is YellowPagesGoesGreen.org, a website at the forefront of the digital information distribution revolution and one that’s fighting for the environment, consumer rights, and convenience for one and all.

Yellow Pages Directory Inc., owner of both YellowPagesGoesGreen.org and PaperlessPetition.org, offers an environmentally-friendly Web-based alternative to paper telephone directories while providing a simple and convenient mechanism for customers to opt out from the receipt of printed yellow books. Both web sites have been instrumental in promoting opt-out awareness across the United States over the past several years, and allowing users to reduce their own environmental footprints in the process. Yellow Pages Directory Inc. has also taken steps to reduce its own impact on the environment through the use of the most up-to-date and energy-efficient web-hosting services available.